The Fountainhead: Part 2: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

When Ellsworth Toohey was seven years old, he turned a hose on Johnny Stokes and soaked his much-loved Sunday suit. Stokes was bright and good-looking while Toohey was frail. To explain his action, Toohey told his mother that Stokes was a bully, which was true, and this left the adults confused about whether Toohey even had to be punished, especially given his poor health. He seemed like a martyr “who had sacrificed himself to avenge injustice, and done it bravely.”

Toohey’s mother, a “restless woman who adopted and discarded five religions,” focused all her energy on her son who had been a puny baby the doctor pronounced “unfit to survive.” She paid no attention to Toohey’s sister, Helen, who was a healthy and good-natured girl, because “there was no martyrdom in loving Helen,” while “her love for so uninspiring an object” as her son “made her grow in spiritual stature.” His father managed the Boston branch of a chain of shoe stores and did not like his son, but even so, he submitted to him without quite knowing why.

At school, Toohey was like a sponge, doing well in subjects like history and English, even though he wasn’t good at math. However, he had to work hard on his lessons and he did work hard—unlike Johnny Stokes, to whom learning came “automatically.” Toohey didn’t take part in athletics, which he said were “vulgar,” and, despite his puniness, he wasn’t afraid to confront bullies with his sharp wit and the hurtful nicknames he coined for them.

When Toohey was 11, his mother died and his Aunt Adeline came to live with them. She didn’t like Toohey, and he liked to mock the lack of romance in her life. She called him “a maggot,” saying he liked to “feed on sores.” Toohey answered, “Then I’ll never starve.” 

In high school, Toohey was the “star orator” and won every contest. The audience only remembered his voice. Forgetting that he was puny boy with glasses, they would speak later of “that beautiful boy.” Toohey “could prove anything” when he spoke.

Toohey thought he would be a minister and he read a great deal about the history of the church and talked a lot about God and the spirit. He found that the bright and strong boys were uninterested in him while the suffering boys gathered around him. Toohey spoke to them on the virtues of suffering—that they must be grateful that God has made them suffer and not to try to understand why this is so because “everything bad comes from the mind.”

When Toohey turned 16, he lost interest in religion and instead turned to socialism. He became “more attentively considerate of people,” and began to be well-liked. He didn’t join any revolutionary parties, but attended meetings where he listened and watched. At Harvard, he majored in history and immersed himself in literature and the arts. He fit in surprisingly well with his fellow students who came from rich, distinguished families by not hiding his humble background even while acting superior to them. He spoke of the masses, and of selflessness and merging one’s spirit “with the vast collective of mankind.”

Toohey graduated with high honors and moved to New York where he worked on a master’s degree and then earned his living in a “varied, scattered way” while slowly gathering followers. He gave them advice about their love affairs and career choices, telling them not to invest too much in relationships and not to pick a career in a field they loved so they could be “calm and sane” about their work. While his life was crowded and busy, he didn’t have “a single private friend” since he gave everyone who approached him the same amount of attention.

Catherine Halsey came to live with him after her mother Helen’s death. By this time, Toohey had established himself as “an eminent critic of architecture.” A few years later, he published Sermons in Stone to great renown, and got a contract to publish a daily column, “One Small Voice,” in the Banner. While the column was initially meant to be about architecture, Toohey wrote about whatever he pleased and was read by millions. He never wrote anything revolutionary, and only preached sentiments like “unselfishness, brotherhood, equality.”

While there was a rumor that Gail Wynand did not like Toohey, he didn’t interfere with his work and Toohey ignored him. Instead, Toohey focused on the unimportant employees of the Banner and formed a “club,” not a “labor union,” which met once a month. Employees “got acquainted, talked, and listened to speeches,” most of them being Toohey’s. Alvah Scarret let Toohey recommend people to fill unimportant open positions.

Toohey also attended meetings at the Council of American Writers, which he had organized, and which was chaired by Lois Cook. The Council had “signed a declaration which stated that writers were servants of the proletariat.” He had also organized the Council of American Artists, where the members “rebelled against the tyranny of reality and of the objective.”

Most people didn’t take these Councils seriously, saying they were a “huge joke,” but there was certainly “no harm in any of it.” When Toohey heard them say these things, he would say, “Do you really think so?” He liked to tell people, “I’m a dangerous person. Somebody ought to warn you against me.”